"Pied Piper" US School Garden Army Poster
SHSND# 10935-P149The commission (with few hard statistics) estimated that the food value of the War Gardens was $350,000,000 in 1917 and $525,000,000 in 1918. The commission estimated that home gardeners had put up 500,000,000 quarts of canned vegetables and fruits in 1917, and 1,450,000,000 quarts in 1918. The Commission offered special thanks to women who joined men in “the production of that other sort of munition – the kind that grows in gardens.” (Pack, p. 37)

The posters were designed to catch attention with bright images and catch phrases. “Sow the Seeds of Victory” was drawn by James Montgomery Flagg. “Every Garden a Munition Plant” was painted by Frank V. DuMond. “Can the Kaiser” and its later version, “The Kaiser is Canned,” were created by J. Paul Vervees, a Belgian artist who was wounded early in the war and immigrated to the US. (Pack, p. 21)

The U.S. School Garden campaign was designed to teach children thrift, industry, service, patriotism, and responsibility. Several posters were created for the U.S. School Garden campaign including “The Pied Piper” by Maginel Wright Enright. Pack admitted that schools were not as fully engaged in the process as they could have been.